The Difference between Open-Pollinated vs. F1 Hybrid Seeds:
If you’ve ever browsed through a seed catalogue or website, you’ve probably seen the terms “open-pollinated” (OP) and “F1 or F2 hybrids” but what do they mean?
Open-Pollinated (OP) Seeds:
These are naturally pollinated by wind, insects, or self-pollination, meaning they stay true to type if you save the seed, meaning they should come back as the same plant each time you save the seeds, provided there are no similar species in the area to cross pollinate. Open pollinated varieties are more budget friendly too.
F1 Hybrid Seeds:
These are the result of hand pollination between two parent plants, resulting in a superior hybrid plant. This results in more reliable plants, more uniform crops, and better disease resistance. These are perfect for high-yield gardens and for exhibitions! One down side of sowing hybrids is that seeds saved from hybrids won’t produce the same plant next season, they can revert back to either parent variety. You’d need to buy fresh seeds year after year.
F1 hybrids are usually cost a little more due to the selective breeding, but you should get bigger yields and more reliable crops. F1 hybrids can be a good choice if you’re specifically looking for a variety that is disease resistant, such as choosing a blight resistant tomato or a club root resistance brassica.
A simple way to explain F1 hybrids is each hybrid has two parent lines just like us. If you have a red flowered Petunia as one parent, and a white Petunia as the other parent, and they are crossed together, this would result in a pink Petunia. Another example is if you have a Cabbage parent line with good vigour, and this is crossed with a Cabbage parent line with clubroot resistance – you get a cabbage with improved vigour and clubroot resistance.
Or in very simple terms if you crossed a Kit-kat with a Mars Bar your hybrid would be a chunky Kit-kat.
F2 Hybrids:
The immediate descendants from selfed or inter-pollinated F1 plants. Plants have an improved vigour and uniformity compared to open pollinated varieties, but will not be as strong as F1 hybrids, but still show more vigour than an open pollinated variety.
Which Should You Choose?
✅ Want to save seeds & stick with heirloom varieties? Choose open pollinated!
✅ Want high yields, disease resistance, improved vigor & reliability? Try F1 hybrids!
Both have their place in gardening, it just depends on what you’re looking to get from your crops.